The prevalence of cervical cancer poses great threat to women's health. 1 Annually, over 500 000 patients were diagnosed with cervical cancer and approximately 300 000 died from this disease. 2-4 Due to the widely use of papanicolaou test for early cervical cancer screening and the advancement of therapeutic methods such as surgery operation, chemical treatment and radiotherapy, the incidence of cervical cancer has been reduced by 40%-50% in recent years. 5-7 However, for those advanced cervical cancer patients, the 5-year survival rate at the late stages can be as low as 15%. 8,9 Therefore, understanding the molecular mechanisms that initiate cervical cancer development and identifying new diagnostic markers are urgent for cervical cancer treatment, especially for those advanced cervical cancer patients. Nearly, all cervical cancer cases are linked to human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. Human papillomavirus is a small DNA tumour virus, consisting of a circular DNA molecule enclosed with capsid proteins. 10 Among all the genes encoded by HPV, E6 and E7 act as key oncogenes that promote tumour growth and malignant transformation. 11-14 Constitutive expression of E6/E7 immortalizes primary epithelial cells and promotes tumour formation in vivo. 15 E7 interacts with and stabilizes retinoblastoma tumour suppressor family (RB1 and RB2), facilitating cell cycle transition from G1 to S phase. 16 Similar to cell growth dysregulation, E6 interacting with ubiquitin ligase E6AP promotes tumour suppressor P53 degradation and cell proliferation. 17 Despite HPV infection, other cofactors also contribute to cervical cancer progression, such as immunosuppression, smoking, co-infection with HIV, co-infection with Chlamydia trachomatis and herpes simplex virus type 2 and other probable cofactors. 12